| CD REVIEW TSM/SLW Promotion Special #4: By Blood Alone - ConFused5 - Full Blown Mosey - Erik Scott - Scythe Of Orion |
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TSM/SLW Promotion Special #4 Finally the long-awaited continuation of these specials, and as promised this time around with some older material. In the case of the first band, I can even tell you that UK promotion had already started back in May 2008…so in a way I’m grateful that they came up with the idea of this iPool thing, because occasionallyy that will bring some truly nice album at Casa Tony! And “older” doesn’t always mean “lesser”, as I hope the reviews below may convince you of…! Band : By Blood Alone Gothic/ Progressive Metal act By Blood Alone (which now consists of singer Melynda “Cruella” Amann, guitarist John Graveside, keyboardist Jenny Wiliamson, bassist Jack Doran, and drummer Runtt…the latter replacing original sticksman John Hoerner -whom wanted to concentrate on his nursing school studies- in Autumn 2005) was founded in Portland (Maine…of all places!) during 2004, had their debut gig (immediately a headliner act, no less) in October of that same year, and released their 4-track Eternally EP midways the year after. Renowned for sounding like no other band in their town and leaving their audiences in a state of awed appreciation during and after gigs, BBA soon started spreading their area of influence throughout the complete New England region (for those interested, this includes the states Maine, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont…or, in plain language, the complete North-East of the US) and, enthoused by people’s reactions to their music, spent time in two Maine studios from January to April 2007 to record their full-length debut Seas Of Blood (re-recording the track “Deny Yourself” off their EP and adding 7 new tracks to make for a 50-minute album). Following the mixing in June, the album was released a couple of months later through the Jericho Hill Records imprint. To top things off, the album was given additional distribution through Metal specialist label Relapse…and that should give you an idea of the qualities of this band! So what happened? Why haven’t we heard about the breakthrough of this band? Why are they now promoting themselves with that same 2007 album? The fact stands that singer Cruella was diagnosed with breast cancer (had an operation in August 2007 & started chemotherapy right after) just prior of a late 2007 tour that was to take the band outside the New England area, and in order to give her a fair battling chance, the tour was completely cancelled. Only towards mid 2008 did the band get on its feet and on local Maine stages again again (did their post-hiatus debut show on May 31st, at which time the band tried out the new material they had written in November-December 2007). Meanwhile, the band had gotten high praise from local Portland weekly arts publication The Phoenix, who placed the band in their year-end Top 10 lists, first in 2005 for the EP, and then in 2007 for the full-length, and again in 2008. When the band found out in early 2009 that they had been overlooked for a nomination in the Portland Phoenix Music Awards, they called out for help from their many friends through their MySpace and eventually ended up winning TWO awards, the first in the category “Best Category Defying Act”, and the second for “Best Female Vocalist”! Okay, enough praise, now back to the music! When listening to the 8-track album (6 of which you can hear at the band’s MySpace page) you’ll find the band to be quite diverse in their approach of songs! While the band will stand proud to be compared to the liikes of Nightwish and Kamelot, theirs is a wider spectrum which sets ‘em apart from those examples and inspiration sources (other influencial bands include The Damned, Mercyful Fate, Christian Death, Bauhaus, Jethro Tull, and Within Temptation –whom are cited as being the most influencial in BBA’s formation). Album opener “Serpentarius” is one of the longer tracks on the album (7 ½ minutes’ length) and has the atmospheric keyboards backed with violin sounds (induced onto the album by producer Steve La Cerra, whom also worked on the EP) for a track that starts off in fairly decent “heaviness”, but gets a rather “classic” passage to boot towards the end. The ensuing “Wants Me Dead” has the violins dropped and the keyboards replaced by a spooky 60’s B-movie Horror movie organ for a somewhat shorter track (still a good 4:20). The ensuing song throws the musical approach (which up til now was typified by the heavy guitars), for a more acoustic and lyrically macabre approach, where Cruella is accompanied only by piano, violins, and some sparce percussion. The spooky organ returns to support the heavy guitars in the tracks “Nidhogg”, “Lovely Lies”, and the re-recorded version of “Deny Yourself”, but is exchanged for piano on the album’s title track and album closing song “Little Lady Lillit”, the latter a nearly acoustic BBA version (the guitar remains etheric, and doesn’t go really into “heavy” mode) of the childish nursery lullaby (the cruelty of privileged children) with dual female vocals (I’m sure thekeyboardist helps out here)! Anyway, you really need to check it out for yourself (at myspace.com/bybloodalone) because descriptions, however elaborate, will never do justice to this band’s dark and somewhat unique approach of Gothic Progressive Metal. As mentioned earlier, the band have already a completely new set of songs to build a new album on, and I, for one, am definitely curious as to what evolutions the band may have gone through! 88/100 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Salzburg (Austria), 1981 : guitarists Markus Melms (leads) and Alexander Kanabetter, together with keyboardist/ singer Herbert Hopfgartner form the seminal Rock band Frust (the bandname a shortening of the German word Frustration – translates exactly the same way), but seen the music business situation in their country at that time, they never get anywhere with that act. Salzburg (same country as above – just joking!), 2003 : The three mentioned above reunite to form ConFused5, with the addition of bassist/ second singer Kurt Breidler and scene veteran drummer “Beda” Bachmayer. Idem, but now 2008 : Thanks to Sellaband.com (the international network of music fans) the fivesome was enabled to book recording time at the Salburger Sonic Flow Studio,where they were joined by top Los Angeles producer Peter Strobl (returning to his native land to do the job – earlier bands he’s produced at the Shangri La studios include Mark Knopfler, Keb’ Mo’, Chaka Khan, Tom Jones, Kings Of Leon, and the list goes on). Strobl then took the recordings home to California’s Rixmix studio in Valley Village, where he mixed the lot with collaboration of award winning engineer/producer Ron Hitchcock (check albums by Toto, Rita Coolidge, and Neil Diamond, among others) to give the album’s material of slightly Proggressive and overall calm-paced Classic Rock a very distinctive vintage analog sound! In combination with Hopfgartner’s slight German accent, one is inclined to connect that to KrautRock, and I’m sure the guys will see that as a complliment rather than an insult…because after all some very nice bands came forth from that scene, bands which weren’t content to play the usual easy-listening stuff, but complied to an extend by adding a pleasantly complex undercurrent! Besides, as one listens to the album a couple of times, one tends to take the accent for granted and as part of the whole, without which the material would not be what it is! Of course, it’s the music itself which will turn your head to this band’s material, whether you like it or not…because at the end of the day you simply cannot escape the qualities of perfect music making! Towards the end of the album, you get some truly wacky deviations in other musical styles, like the Loungy intro of the calmer “New Orleans Minor”, the Reggae meanderings of the ensuing “No One”, which are followed by album closer “To The Moon”…a “modern” version of Franz Schubert’s “An der Mond”. I use the “modern” term loosely here, because where the instrumentation (nice piano, great but weird sounding electric guitar, some keyboard generated strings, drums) is at least partly modern, Hopfgartner has kept the vocal approach (with lyrics translated to English) as close as possible to the original…which makes for him singing in a wonderful counter-tenor voice. And that’s só beautiful man…I mean, I’m moved to tears while writing this (and listening to the song) by the sheer emotional content of that voice, that how góód this guy sings! Definitely different from the other material on the album, but what a gréat way to finish an allbum! I mean, the album deserves to make my year-lists just because of that track! Pity I didn’t get this last year (the band looses one point for the awkwardness the vocals gave me at the beginning)! Point is, how much growth possibilities are there for a band like this? They might try to make it in the neighbouring Swizerland, where Classic Rock is still broadly appreciated…but where competition is already enormous…or find themselves doin’ a tour of Germany’s biker pubs and venues! As it is, the latter possibility indeed would keep the band busy touring for a while! [I just found out, to my amazement, that this album was only officially released on February 19 of this year, so here goes the “Best Albums Of 2009” nomination!!!] 97/100 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The origins of Lander (Wyoming) based FBM can be traced back to when guitarists Rocky Harting and Greg Scott played covers by the likes of Maiden, Dokken, D.A.D., Scorpions, and others of the genre, in a band after high school. But they also wrote the occasional original song, and some of the material on this, their debut album, can be traced back to those days. Then Greg left the band (which didn’t have the current monicker yet), and Rocky met lead singer & bassist Kirk Warren, who’d freshly moved in from California. Although they had different backgrounds (Rocky was more into ‘80s Metal, while Kirk was in tune with ‘70s Rock), the combination prooved great. They soon started playing gigs at the biker venues of their area, playing a mix of covers by the oldies the likes of Zeppelin, Night Ranger, or Bad Company…with newer stuff by such bands as Megadeth, Stone Temple Pilots, and Pearl Jam…alongside their own stuff. They prooved a welcome act in the biker scene, and ended up playing almost every weekend in front of their biker friends! After a couple of years Greg returned, and he turned out to have a very nice backing voice for Kirk’s leads, and so Full Blown Mosey was born! Over the years the fans had been bugging the band about a full-length album (to replace and/or complement the demoes they’d already issued). Then in 2004 drummer Dale Ortega joined the band, which decided that it was about timme to start work on their album, which they would record themselves! So Rocky started turning his basement into a recording studio, and work actually started somewhere in 2005. Which was tough enough to combine with the dayjobs the guys all had, and the regular weekend gigs! Then Dale, whom was born with a heart defect, got ill and died in 2006, before the album was finished. With the drum tracks recorded first, it IS however hís percussion we hear on the album (of which he at least got to hear part)…and the band came to the decision that they hàd to finish the album and dedicate it to their old friend! After the release of the album, Greg Scott Jr. sat in on the drums for a couple of gigs, and eventually the spot was taken on permanently by one Jaime Stransky. Since then, the band (or mainly Kirk) has aleady written most of what is to be their next album, about which Rocky commented : “We might be more like a Zeppeliin record as opposed to records you may hear these days that stick to a single style. You may hear a little bit of Blues, Metal, even Folk and a hint of Classical influence.” Uh? I’ll be damned if that doesn’t somehow also describe this debut album by the band! I mean, at myspace.com/fullblownmosey they themselves describe themselves with the words : “FBM brings a mix of Rock ‘n’ Roll for each song. A mixed bag of stuff that sounds close to Night Ranger, Iron Maiden, Triumph, Kiss, Van Halen, and/or Rush”…and you know what they sound like to me? Like an American Hard Rock band with a taste of progressive touches of the mid ‘80s might sound, having just discovered the main bands of the NWoBHM-scene (that’s early Judas priest…before they became commercialized, early Maiden, some Saxon, and a couple others of the same ilk), and wanting to keep a foothold “in both worlds”, while adding elements from each into each other, but always keeping things in controll (meaning, they never get off on a Speed rampage or such thing). In other words, I like…nay, I lóve this stuff! Kirk’s voice may be slightly nasal, and he might not always hit those high notes as clean as it should be, but in the end he gives the band a distinctive face quite of their own! Of course, this being an American band, you gótta expect the guys to write and play a ballad of sorts as well…and FBM do this somewhat strong-headedly by bringing the nicely atmospheric (and short) “In Reverence” (featuring Greg on synthesizers, and some bit of acoustic guitar), as well as a real ballad with “Nite Drive”, on which Kirk and Greg give perfect evidence of how well their voices can blend! Anyway, you can hear that for yourselves, as the song is one of the 4 posted at the band’s MySpace page! Check it out at your leasure! Somebody sign this band and start a revival hype, will you? Pretty please, uh..? 88/100 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Don’t be astounded to never have heard about the solo artist Erik Scott, aka “Eski”…because this is his first solo album. However, Scott is a veteran bass player (and off and on producer/ session musician) of the music business (as far as I can assertain his first recording was with the band Food for the 1969 album Forever is A Dream) who’s been part of a couple of resounding bands: Flo & Eddie (with whom he recorded 1975’s “Illegal, Immoral & Fattening and 1976’s Moving Targets), Tonio K. (on the 1978 album Life In The Foodchain), Alice Cooper (1981’s Special Forces and 1982’s Zipper Catches Skin albums, plus the For Britain Only EP), Kim Carnes (1985 & 1986 albums Barking At Airplanes & Light House), and the one-off PM (a Carl Palmer band) album 1PM (1998?). In between he also played on albums by Maureen McGuire (Forever Is A Dream), Tuxedo Junction (Bernadette & Gershwin ’79), Triumph (one song on the 1987 Surveillance album), Ted Nugent (one song on the 1986 Little Miss Dangerous album), Frannie Golde (Restless), Signal (also co-wrote songs on the 1989 album Loud And Clear), and albums by Pops and Mavis Staples (1994’s Father Father & 2004’s Have A Little Faith respectively). He also played on ànd produced albums by Peter McIan (Playing Near The Edge), Idle Tears (1986’s Idle Tears), Sharon O’Neill (1981’s Maybe) and of course Alice Cooper album the Zipper catches Skin. In 1982 he also joined the somewhat wacky Sonia Dada, who’ve released a total of 6 studio albums since! In other words, this is definitely a bass playing VETERAN! Except for the track “Bathing Maui” (which relates the adventures of Erik putting his dog Maui to bath, the whole done with musical backings), this is an instrumental album on which Erik not only plays the bass and bass generated sound effects, but also some of the keyboards, and did some drum programming. The rest of the music is filled up by a host of guest musicians [one playing extra piano and organ, two others providing additional percussion, and four more providing guitar stuff (either acoustic, electric, or steel)], and while the inclusion of these other instruments certainly should not be taken lightly in certain songs, for bringing in certain moods (for example, the slide steel guitar on “Peace On Saturn” brings in a somewhat Hawaii-an atmosphere), this is still primarily an album written to make shine Erik’s incredibly sensitive bass playing (and believe you me, in a lot of the songs it’s primarily the bass lines which play a lead role)! Overall the mood is calm and serene, and not without a certain degree of movie soundtrack music feel. In essence, an album to listen to on a nice Summer’s evening with a cold longdrink in hand, sitting in the rocking chair on the porch,..but then I could listen to this kind of material anywhere, anytime! To find music (regrettably only samples off this album, but then there’s a total of 6…which is nice, right?) by this artist on MySpace, it is important to know that there’s other artists by the same name, but just enter myspace.com/ericscottbass, and you’ll come at the right address! Once you’ve gone through what’s posted there, you’ll be enticed into hearing more…which will definitely get you hooked into getting the album for yourself! Believe me, if you’re on a small budget, and already spent your quota on new CDs, you will beg, steal, or borrow to be able to get this album anyway! In other words, here’ss an addition to my year-lists of 2008…ach well, since the album was released so late in that year, I suppose it’s safe to land it into my 2009 lists…whadda ya say? 98/100 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Although this Finnish sextet came into being in early 2006, the basis for the band was founded in late 2004, when (female) singer Anu Kaunisto heard that guitarist Petri Lamminsaari (who’d played with JSP betwween 1989 and 1991, and was still playing with cover Rock band Gütterin veljet at that time) was looking for a vocalist on his demo for an acoustic project. Impressed with each other’s qualities, they decided to continue as a duo named KalevanMiekka (which is apparently still active today). With Gütterin folding towards the end of 2005, the two were looking for a new heavy project, and started looking around for the necessary people…the first of which drummer Jani Lahnavik (has played/ or plays with Legend, Progressive Jesus Expreiment, Tsupukka, Cross Of Life, and Gospel Rock act Charis). Lahnavik put his keyboard playing Charis bandmate Kristian Wrang wize to the fact that Scythe Of Orion (as they were already called at that moment) was looking for a good man on the keys, and so he applied for the job! Somewhere in Summer 2006 the band was completed by violinist Maarit Koivisto (the story going that she was playing support to KalevanMiekka with her own outfit, the acoustic Haapamäen Pelimannit, and that Anu approached her afterwards with an offer to join SOO – funny detail, both girls hail from the town of Haapamäki). I know, that makes only for 5 persons, but I’m guessing bassist Antti Horttana (who’d played with covers band Root Of All Difference, and still plays in the bands Salvation On Mayon, Sointuseura, Crescent Earth, Riimutonttu, and 667 today) only joined the band àfter the band’s self-release of their 2-track single titled The Dawn Of Scythe Of Orion in June 2007. On the cover of that single only five people are pictured, and indeed when checking the band’s website (scytheoforion.com) I found evidence that the current band was only completed in Summer 2007! The X-Lives demo contains 5 songs which represent a cross-section of music written (and produced) by Lamminsaari, were written in the period 1995 to 2008, and are featured on the recording in chronological order of composition. Symphonic Metal is used as a musical vehicle in these songs, and therefore the contributions of piano and violin are essential. The songs go from straight-forward heavy to more alternating between calm and heavy passages, occasionally even sees Petri going acoustic (or acoustic-like), and from simple melodic to beholding a pleasant complexity! On top of it all comes Anu’s beautiful voice…which is nót, for once, an operatic voive as one would expect normally from a band which confesses itself to play Symphonic Metal, but rather voluminous and with a forceful quality which elevates the band above whatever they could be with a soprano singer! Samples of all tracks can be heard in the music section of the band’s website (would you believe they do nót have a MySpace page?), so head on over there…and enjoy! 90/100 Tony. |
